Obama prepares his daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, for school as his wife Michelle looks on in Washington. (AP)

Washington, Jan. 5: With a brief glance out his car window — barely visible through cordons of Secret Service officers, black SUVs and security barricades — the soon-to-be leader of the free world bid a brief hello last night to the town he will now call home and to his new neighbours: scores of spectators camped outside his temporary quarters at the Hay-Adams Hotel.

There were no speeches, no ceremonies or official welcoming committees. Instead, Barack Obama, a man famous for his no-drama persona, arrived in the nation’s capital in a similarly subdued fashion.

His limousine pulled up to claps and cheers from crowds lining the blocks near the hotel and also the cries of protesters angry about the Gaza Strip — a reminder of the vexing problems he will face when he takes office. Then, in seconds, he was whisked inside.

Although the moment was brief, its historic nature was not lost on many in the crowd. For some, it marked the beginning of a long-promised day.

For others around town, it was the move that triggers a thousand other moves, as loyalists of the old regime make room for coming appointees, staff workers and their families. Throughout the district, longtime residents talked about forging a new kind of relationship with their President, one more intimate than any before.

Although such talk was rife with grand references to history, Obama’s early arrival yesterday was driven by something a little more mundane. Like many parents, the Obamas wanted to make sure that their children would get to school on time.

Today, a spokeswoman for the future First Lady, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, said that Michelle Obama accompanied daughters Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, to Sidwell Friends school. Sasha is attending classes at the suburban Bethesda, Maryland, elementary-school campus, where she is in the second grade. Malia is in the fifth grade at the middle school campus in Washington.

The family had asked to stay at Blair House, a guesthouse near the White House where the President-elect typically lives just before inauguration. But they were rebuffed by the Bushes, who said the building was already booked “by White House officials, the state department and its office of protocol for various events”. So the Obamas headed to the posh Hay-Adams, just off Lafayette Square, a stone’s throw from their future home on Pennsylvania Avenue. The future First Lady and daughters arrived on Saturday night, hurried in mostly out of view by a caravan of SUVs.

Yesterday afternoon, after hours of waiting, the crowd across the street from the hotel got a flash of excitement as Michelle and her two girls left at 1:37pm. Although the future first family was again enshrouded in black SUVs, some in the crowd swore they spotted — for half a second through the windows of the second car — Michelle Obama in a red coat waving to them.

Later in the afternoon, the President-elect left Chicago for Washington, boarding an Air Force jet emblazoned with the presidential seal and frequently used to transport the Vice-President or First Lady.

When he stepped off the plane at Andrews Air Force Base an hour and a half later, he was greeted with a salute. Obama told journalists on board that he “choked up” when he left his empty house in the afternoon.

Officially, the city had no special welcome planned for Obama, just plenty of street closings near the hotel at 16th and H streets northwest. But local leaders and residents were abuzz yesterday about the larger impact his family might bring to town.

Many pointed to Barack Obama’s community organising days in Chicago and Michelle Obama’s stated plans to invest in the district as signs that this family’s relationship with the city will be strikingly different.

All day yesterday inside the Hay-Adams, locals tried their best to jump-start that relationship. Just off the lobby, where a lavish $65-a-plate Sunday brunch was underway, almost none of the well-dressed diners mentioned Obama or his family already ensconced in a suite upstairs.

Don’t let the cool demeanours fool you, though, said one diner. “That’s what everyone’s thinking about even if they don’t say it,” Terrance Mason said later, a safe distance from the elegant dining room. “Just to be in the same building, to be breathing the same air. It’s amazing.”

Even before Obama’s arrival, Mason noted, the 44th President had already made his mark on the city, or at least in the dining room of the Hay-Adams. “I’ve never seen so many fellow African Americans up there before. He’s already shaking things up, you know what I mean?”